“I know a lot of people in my caucus who are frankly underpaid,” House Speaker William G. Batchelder said yesterday.

Batchelder personally makes $99,437.40 a year in his current role as Speaker of the House. On top of that, he’s pulling down over $100K/year from his state pension. On top of all THAT, the the Dayton Daily News reports that he, like many other state reps, is likely getting a $34K deduction on his federal taxes. (And state senators get a $54,376 tax deduction!).

All this so Batch can show up in Columbus for 19 days over the next six months. Maybe. If he feels like it.

Quick comparison: The average Ohio police officer put his/her life on the line 40 hours a week, almost EVERY week, for the entire year. They average around $53,680/year. Fire Fighters do the same for $42,350.

Speaker Batchelder makes over $200K, he gets a huge tax deduction AND he’ll be taking the entire month of August off – and maybe July, September and August too.

Batchelder thinks ‘lazy’ police officers and mooching fire fighters are bankrupting the state with their excessive, collectively-bargained benefits.